PC strand coated with rust inhibitor and method for producing the same

Abstract: A PC strand (1) is formed by twisting peripheral wires (3) made of deformed PC steel wires around a core (2), and allowing rust inhibitive material of thermoplastic resin to permeate into voids defined between the core (1) and peripheral wires (3) by use of an extruder. The core (2) may be deformed instead of the peripheral wires (3). Since at least one of the core (2) and peripheral wires (3) is made of a deformed PC steel wire having an uneven outer surface, the thermoplastic resin can smoothly permeate deep into the inside of the PC strand.

Description: This invention relates to a PC strand coated with rust inhibitive material, which is used for stressing prestressed concrete or as a suspender cable for a suspension bridge, and a method for producing the coated PC strand. In recent years, there have been developed a PC strand applied for a posttension unbond method, which is coated with sticky synthetic resin and inserted into a synthetic resin sheath, and another PC strand applied for a pretension bond method, which is placed within concrete in use after being coated with synthetic resin and strained. (Japanese Patent Application Public Disclosure No. HEI 1-215528(A)) Such conventional PC strands inevitably embrace small spaces or voids around a core and peripheral wires in spite of coating of the synthetic resin. The small spaces or voids disadvantageously permit water and air to sink from the end of the strand into the inside of the strand through the voids, thus to possibly corrode the core and peripheral wires of the strand. There has been so far proposed a method for solving such a problem, which comprises previously coating string wires one by one with synthetic resin, twisting the string wires to form a strand body, and further coating the strand body with synthetic resin. (Japanese Patent Application Public Disclosure No. SHO 61-144121(A)) The PC strand produced by the proposed method however suffers a disadvantage such that residual stress caused by twisting the string wires remains in the strand because the PC strand is not subjected to bluing treatment. Consequently, the conventional PC strand is apt to untwist and destabilize its strength. Besides, since the core and peripheral wires are individually coated with synthetic resin so as to interpose synthetic resin among the core and wires, the PC strand resultantly produced is elastically lengthened particularly when it is forcibly stretched. There has been developed a method for permitting the PC strand to be free from these disadvantages, in which the PC strand is coated with rust inhibitive material while being passed through a pressure head in a synthetic resin extruder under a high pressure (about 100 kgf/cm 2 or more) so as to press the synthetic resin into the voids among the core and wires of the strand under pressure. (Japanese Pat. Appln. Public Disclosures Nos. JP-A-05 089 742 and HEI 5-37331(a)). There are thus known a PC strand and a method having the features of the preamble of claims 1 and 4. However, this prior art method calls for heavy pressure to press the molten synthetic resin into the voids within the PC strand through narrow openings between the peripheral wires in order to effect rust prevention. This disadvantage becomes conspicuous with increasing viscosity of the molten synthetic resin. Thus, there is a limit in ability of preventing the core and peripheral wires from rusting. Although the aforementioned prior art method is applicable to a PC strand having the peripheral wires twisted around the core, it cannot be applied to a PC strand of multilayer structure comprising a core, an intermediate layer of twisted wires, and an outer layer of twisted wires. In the light of the foregoing actual state of affairs, the present invention was made to provide a PC strand coated with synthetic resin, in which internal voids defined among a core and twisted peripheral wires are completely filled with rust inhibitive material, and in particular, a method for coating a PC strand of multilayer structure with the synthetic resin serving as a rust inhibitor, by which the synthetic resin can be effectively pressed deep into the inside of the PC strand by use of a synthetic resin extruder. In accordance with the invention, the aforementioned objects are achieved by the characterising features of claims 1 and 4. The deformed PC steel wire or wires may comprise the core, all the peripheral wires or every other peripheral wire. Since the PC strand according to this invention is formed by twisting the core and peripheral wires including the deformed PC steel wires having uneven outer surfaces by a strong uniting force, voids are positively formed among the core and peripheral wires and completely filled with molten thermoplastic resin with the pressure produced by the pressure head. Since the molten thermoplastic resin is heated by the extruder, it can permeate deep into the inside of the PC strand without decreasing viscosity. After the thermoplastic resin is hardened by cooling, the PC strand becomes stiff and remarkably strengthened. Other and further objects of this invention will become obvious upon an understanding of the illustrative embodiments about to be described or will be indicated in the appended claims, and various advantages not referred to herein will occur to one skilled in the art upon employment of the invention in practice. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other objects and features of the present invention will be hereinafter explained in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a first embodiment of the PC strand coated with rust inhibitive material according to this invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a second embodiment of the same, FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a third embodiment of the same, FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a fourth embodiment of the same, FIGS. 5(A) and 5(B) are a side view and a sectional view showing one peripheral wire used in the PC strand of the first or second embodiment, FIGS. 6(A) and 6(B) are a side view and a sectional view showing one peripheral wire used in another embodiment, FIGS. 7(A) and 7(B) are a side view and a sectional view showing one peripheral wire used in still another embodiment, FIGS. 8(A) and 8(B) are a side view and a sectional view showing one peripheral wire used in yet another embodiment, FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing one example of a processing system according to this invention, FIG. 10 is a sectional view showing, in part, an extruder used in the processing system of FIG. 9, FIG. 11 is a cross section of one example of the PC strand used in this invention, FIG. 12 is a cross section of another example of the PC strand used in this invention, FIG. 13 is a cross section of still another example of the PC strand used in this invention, FIG. 14 is a cross section of yet another example of the PC strand used in this invention, FIG. 15 is a cross section of a further example of the PC strand used in this invention, FIG. 16 is a cross section of the other example of the PC strand used in this invention, FIG. 17 is a cross section of the other example of the PC strand used in this invention, FIG. 18 is a sectional view showing a molding die used in the other embodiment of this invention, and FIG. 19 is a section taken on line A-A in FIG. 18. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS This invention will become more fully is understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention. In FIG. 1 showing one embodiment of this invention, a PC strand 1 coated with rust inhibitive material comprises one core 2 and six peripheral wires 3 which constitute a strand body 4, and rust inhibitive material 5. That is, the strand body 4 is formed by spirally winding the peripheral wires 3 of PC steel around the core 2 of PC steel. The peripheral wire 3 is made of a deformed PC wire having grooves 6 in its peripheral surface as illustrated in FIG. 5. The core 2 and peripheral wires 3 each are covered with the rust inhibitive material 5. The rust inhibitive material 5 is generally made of polyethylene resin, but should not be understood as limitative. That is to say, the rust inhibitive material may be of thermoplastic resin such as polypropylene, copolymer of polyethylene and polypropylene, its denatured composition, and nylon resin. FIG. 2 shows the second embodiment of the PC strand coated with rust inhibitive material according to this invention. This PC strand 11 has a multilayered strand body 15 comprising one core 12, an intermediate layer of nine peripheral wires 13 spirally wound around the core 12, and an outer layer of nine peripheral wires 14 spirally wound around the intermediate layer. The strand body 15 is coated with rust inhibitive material 5. The peripheral wire 13 of the intermediate layer is made of a deformed PC steel wire having spiral grooves 6 as shown in FIG. 5. The core 12 and the peripheral wire 14 are made of an ordinary PC steel wire having a flat outer periphery. FIGS. 3 and 4 show the third and fourth embodiments of the PC strand coated with rust inhibitive material. The PC strands 1a and 11a of these embodiments are made by forming spiral depressions 42 and 43 parallel to the peripheral wires 3 and 14 of the PC strands 1 and 11 of the first and second embodiments described above. Also, the outer peripheral wire 14 may of course be made of the deformed PC steel wire as shown in FIG. 5. The deformed PC steel wire may be formed with slender grooves spirally extending longitudinally as shown in FIG. 5, dot-like grooves 16 as shown in FIG. 6, sideways short grooves 17 as shown in FIG. 7, or zigzag grooves 18 extending substantially in the longitudinal direction as shown in FIG. 8. The process of coating the PC strand with rust inhibitive material according to the present invention will be described hereinafter with reference to FIG. 9. First, a PC strand supply 21 for supplying a strand body 23 (shown in FIG. 11 and FIG. 12) of the PC strand body 4 or 15 to be resultantly made into the aforesaid PC strand 1 or 11 is set in a strand delivery device 22 so as to continuously send out the strand body 23. The strand body 23 successively sent out is passed through and heated by a heating device 24 and then introduced into a synthetic resin extruder 25. The heating temperature at which the strand body is heated by the heating device 24 is maintained at about 200°C. The extruder 25 comprises a cross head 26, an auxiliary pressure head 27 attached to the front end of the cross head 26, and a molding die 28 attached to the front end of the pressure head 27, as shown in FIG. 10. The PC strand body 23 heated by the heating device 24 is passed through the cross head 26, auxiliary pressure head 27 and molding die 28, and connected to a lead wire (not shown). The lead wire is pulled by a drawing device 29 and wound up round a lead wire reel 31 by a lead wire winding device 30. The rust inhibitive material 5 of thermoplastic resin in this embodiment is melted by being heated at about 200°C in the extruder 25 and forcibly fed from the cross head 26 into the auxiliary pressure head 27. The rust inhibitive material may be of thermoplastic resin such as polypropylene, copolymer of polyethylene and polypropylene, its denatured composition, and nylon resin, as touched upon above. The auxiliary pressure head 27 attached to the cross head 26 can be heated by a heater 32 so that the molten thermoplastic resin can effectively permeate into the PC strand body 23 without being cooled. When using thermoplastic resin of amorphous polymer having low molecular weight, it is not necessarily heated. The rust inhibitive material 5 of thermoplastic resin to be forcibly fed into the cross head 26 is introduced into the auxiliary pressure head 27 and discharged together with the PC strand body 23 from the molding die 28 attached to the front end of the auxiliary pressure head. At the time that the PC strand body passes through the molding die, the resin pressure of the rust inhibitive material 5 is increased over a prescribed pressure so as to allow the rust inhibitive material to permeate deep into the inside of the PC strand body. In the case of the PC strand shown in FIG. 11, the rust inhibitive material 5 is forcibly pushed into voids "a" defined around the core 2 and peripheral wires 3 through openings between the outer peripheral wires 3. The grooves formed in the peripheral wires 3 made of deformed steel wires allow the rust inhibitive material 5 to be easily spread throughout the voids around the core and peripheral wires, consequently to completely fill the voids in the PC strand and effectively coat the PC strand with rust inhibitive material. In the case of the PC strand body having a plurality of layers of twisted wires as shown in FIG. 12, the rust inhibitive material 5 passes into the voids among the outer peripheral wires 14 and intermediate peripheral wires 13 through openings between the outer peripheral wires 14, and further permeates deep into the voids around the core 12 through opening between the intermediate peripheral wires 13. As a result, the voids "a" within the PC strand body 23 are completely filled with the rust inhibitive material 5, and all the core 12 and wires 13 and 14 are entirely coated with the rust inhibitive material 5. In the case that the PC strand body 23 of FIG. 11 is coated with the rust inhibitive material of polyethylene resin, the resin pressure in the auxiliary pressure head 27 is preferably 80 to 100 kgf/cm 2 . In the case of the multilayered PC strand 23 shown in FIG. 12, the resin pressure more than 100 kgf/cm 2 is necessary. The length L 2 of the auxiliary pressure head 27 in the present invention is longer than the length L 1 of the molding die in a cross head which is used commonly. It is preferable to determine the length L 2 when using amorphous polymer having low molecular weight to more than two times L 1 , and that when using thermoplastic resin to more than three times L 1 . When L 2 is more than five times L 1 , it is desirable to provide an auxiliary molding die 34 for pressing the strand once again, because the coating of the rust inhibitive material on the strand swells during passage through the long path of L 2 . After the PC strand coated with the rust inhibitive material 5 of thermoplastic resin passes through the molding die 28 or auxiliary molding die 34, it is cooled by a cooling device 35 and wound up by a reel 37 of a winding device 36. In the drawing, reference numeral 39 denotes a pressure gauge. The PC strand may possibly pass a corona discharge processing device 38 after passing through the cooling device 35 in order to make the outer surface of the PC strand rough for the purpose of increasing adhesion to concrete or other materials. The PC strand thus produced is completely coated with the rust inhibitive material as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The molding die 28 and auxiliary molding die 34 each may have inner protrusions conforming with the spiral depressions formed in the outer surface of the PC strand 23 as shown in FIG. 19, so that they can be held rotatably by bearings 40 and 41 so as to rotate as the PC strand 23 is forwarded, as illustrated in FIG. 18. In this case, the PC strand resultantly produced has the depressions 42 or 43 in the outer surface of the rust inhibitive coating, which correspond to the concavities defined between the peripheral wires 3 or 14 of the strand 4 or 15, as shown in FIG. 3 or FIG. 4. In the PC strand body before being coated with rust inhibitive material, cores 2 and 12 and peripheral wires 3, 13 and 14 all are made of the deformed PC steel wires as shown in FIGS. 13 and 14. Of course, only the core 12 and the intermediate wires 13 may be made of the deformed PC steel wires as shown in FIG. 15, or all the peripheral wires 13 and 14 except for the core 12 may be made of the deformed PC steel wires as shown in FIG. 16. Otherwise, every other peripheral wire 3 around the core may be made of the deformed PC steel wire. Thus, a variety of arrangements of the deformed PC steel wires may be applied. Furthermore, the peripheral wires around the core may be formed by twisting seven wires, nineteen wires, twenty-eight wires, thirty-seven wires or forty-six wires. As is apparent from the foregoing explanation, according to the present invention, porosity of the PC strand can be increased and made uniform so that molten thermoplastic resin serving as a rust inhibitor can smoothly permeate deep into the inside of the PC strand, because of the deformed PC steel wires used as the core and/or peripheral wires to form sufficient voids around the core and peripheral wires. Thus, the voids within the PC strand can be completely filled with the rust inhibitive material, and even a PC strand of a multilayer twisting type can be effectively coated with the rust inhibitive material.

Claims: A PC strand (1) coated with rust inhibitive material, which comprises a core (2;12) and peripheral wires (3;13,14) twisted around said core (2;12), said core (2;12) and peripheral wires (3;13,14) being coated with rust inhibitive material (5) of thermoplastic resin, characterised in that at least one of said core (2;12) and peripheral wires (3;13,14) is a deformed PC steel wire having an uneven outer surface. A PC strand according to Claim 1, wherein said peripheral wires (13,14) are arranged in a plurality of layers. A PC strand according to Claim 2, wherein said layers of twisted peripheral wires include an intermediate layer of peripheral wires (13) each made of a deformed PC steel wire. A method for producing a PC strand coated with rust inhibitive material, which comprises twisting peripheral wires (3;13,14) around a core (2;12) to form a strand body having one or more layers of peripheral wires (13,14) around said core (2,12), passing said strand body through a synthetic resin extruder having a pressure head (27) with a molding die (28) while being heated, forcibly pressing molten thermoplastic resin (5) into said strand body passing through said extruder by said pressure head (27), and discharging said strand body from said molding die, thereby to bring said thermoplastic resin (5) into intimate contact with said core (2;12) and peripheral wires (13;14) characterised in that at least one of said core (2,12) and peripheral wires (3;13,14) is made of a deformed PC steel wire. A method according to Claim 4, wherein said deformed PC steel wire has an uneven outer surface. A method according to Claim 5, wherein said uneven outer surface comprises longitudinally extending slender spiral grooves (6). A method according to Claim 4, wherein said uneven outer surface comprises dot-like grooves (16). A method according to Claim 4, wherein said uneven outer surface comprises short sideways grooves (17). A mehod according to Claim 4, wherein said uneven outer surface comprises zigzag grooves (18).

Inventors: CHIKIRI KAZUYOSHI, HIGASHI YUKIHIRO, MUGURUMA HIROSHI, CHIKIRI, KAZUYOSHI, HIGASHI, YUKIHIRO, MUGURUMA, HIROSHI
Applicants: HIEN ELECTRIC IND LTD, TIMES ENGINEERING LTD, HIEN ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES, LTD., TIMES ENGINEERING, LTD.
Application year: 1994
Main classification: D07B1
IPC codes: D07B7, D07B1, E04C5